Brussels, 25/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - By scraping the bottom of the barrel, €126.4 million may be used to keep the African Peace Facility afloat until 2013 as its resources, as the EU Council pointed out on Monday 24 September, could be exhausted this year.
Unanimous conclusions adopted without debate on the reconstitution of resources for the Facility point out that €100 million had been reserved to this end by the ACP-EU Committee of Ambassadors, when it was recently decided to reallocate part of the remainder of the European Development Fund (10th EDF) budget, which finances cooperation between the EU and the group of ACP States (African/Caribbean/Pacific) over the period 2008-2013.
By adding to this sum €26.4 billion in unused financial resources from the Facility's three-year action programme for 2008-2010, the instrument, which was established in 2003 to constitute a foreseeable source of funding with the support of the African peace and security agenda, would prevent there being a funding shortage in 2013.
However, this extra €126.4 million would not prevent other amounts being made available. The Council recalls that the African Peace Facility aims to support the efforts of the African Union and of regional organisations to face up to the security challenges throughout Africa, and reaffirms that, in term, it will be necessary to envisage forms of financing other than the EDF.
Initially given a budget of €300 million when it was set in place in 2003, the African Peace Facility received a further €300 million in 2011. (AN/transl.jl)